Houston has a problem, and its name is Florida

On the last day of the college basketball season, counting down to the national championship game, everyone loves Houston.

And what's not to love?

Houston beat Duke in the national semifinals and did it in the most stunning fashion. Because so many people hate Duke, the team that derails the Blue Devils in March or April automatically becomes America's darling. That Houston turned up the heat and forced Duke to melt down in the end made the Cougars even more embraceable.

For the record, despite all those five-star recruits and first-round draft picks, Duke has been to exactly as many Final Fours as Auburn in the last decade. Like the Tigers, the Devils didn't advance to the title game on either trip.

Jon Scheyer may have a bright future, but he started on third base when he succeeded Mike Krzyzewski. When Bruce Pearl followed Tony Barbee, Auburn basketball was, take your pick, an afterthought or a joke. 

Houston has a grizzled, respected, beloved old coach in Kelvin Sampson, who can lead the Cougars to their first national championship, the one Phi Slamma Jamma let get away in 1983 against cardiac NC State and Jim Valvano. At age 69, Sampson can become the oldest coach to climb the final ladder and cut down the last net.

Houston has a player who's already won a big ring in Baylor transfer LJ Cryer, a well-earned reputation as the roughest, toughest bunch of hombres in the sport and the home-state advantage in the Alamodome.

But Houston, you have a problem, and its name is Florida.

You see how long it took for the Gators to earn a mention in this column? That's about how long it's taken for them to earn the respect they deserve as the best team in the best version of the SEC.

They wrestled that title away from Auburn once and for all in Saturday's first national semifinal. If the SEC is what we've thought it was from Maui to San Antonio - the best top-to-bottom conference in the history of college basketball - Florida will add the exclamation point tonight. At age 39, Golden will become the youngest coach to earn a big ring since Valvano did it at 37.

Don't think of the following facts as a spurious reliance on the unreliable transitive property. Think of them as a body of work that can withstand the body blows Houston will try to rain on Walter Clayton Jr. and company.

Just as Florida, Houston, Auburn and Duke separated themselves from the rest of college basketball to form the most formidable Final Four, Florida, Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee rose above the best of the rest in the SEC.

Florida climbed the highest. The Gators went 2-0 against Auburn, 2-0 against Alabama and 2-1 against Tennessee - with only one of those games, a 30-point beatdown of the Vols, in Gainesville.

Compare that incredible 6-1 mark against the cream of the country's top conference to Houston's 1-2 performance against the same collection of power teams. The Cougars lost to Auburn in Houston. They lost to Alabama in Las Vegas. They beat Tennessee in the Elite Eight, and as impressive as that 19-point knockout may have been, again, see Florida 73, Tennessee 43 for comparison.

In Florida's seven games against Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee, the Gators scored an average of 82.1 points and allowed an average of 73.4. In Houston's three games against the Tigers, Tide and Vols, the Cougars scored an average of 72.7 points and allowed an average of 69.7.

In short, against the rest of the best of the SEC, Florida outperformed Houston by a considerable distance.

That doesn't mean that, for 40 minutes tonight, Houston can't hang around as it did against Duke. But unlike Cooper Flagg, Clayton has been this tournament's biggest scorer and most clutch player. Florida's Big Four bigs, who wore down Auburn star Johni Broome, are a problem on both ends.

The Gators have their own Final Four veteran in Alijah Martin, a physical force at guard who produced not one but two poster dunks Saturday against Auburn. They have a third guard in Will Richard who qualifies as another grown-ass man who will not back down in the face of Houston's force.

Florida has seen SEC defenses about as rugged as Houston's and eventually found a way to score on them. Houston has seen SEC offenses about as potent as Florida's and proved unable to completely shut them down.

Houston has struggled against two of the best teams in the SEC. Now it faces the best team in the best conference in memory, maybe in history. No one outside the league has beaten this Florida team. It'll be an upset if it happens tonight.

Florida hasn't won a national title since going back-to-back in 2006 and 2007. The SEC hasn't done it since Kentucky danced in the confetti in 2012. It's time for the Gators to finish the best SEC season ever by putting themselves and their league back on top.